Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (ASE: HTO, NYSE: OTE), the Greek full-service telecommunications provider, today announced that its 100%-owned subsidiary OTE plc has finalized the issue of a syndicated loan of up to Euro 850 million, guaranteed by OTE, with a maturity of five years and a maximum extension period of two years. OTE thereby took advantage of the favorable interest rate environment in the market to refinance existing debt.

The proceeds of the issue will be used as follows:

a) Euro 500 million will be advanced to Cosmote, which will refinance a loan of up to US$ 420 million expiring in November 2005 and use the balance to finance investments;

b) The remaining Euro 350 million, will be used by OTE plc to refinance its existing syndicated loan, which currently functions as a backstop facility, but has not been utilized to date.

The mandated lead arrangers of the syndicated loan are Alpha Bank, Bank of America, Dresdner Bank, National Bank of Greece, HSBC and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. A total of 21 banks participated in the syndication, and the deal was oversubscribed.